Fethiye Off The Beaten Path

Fethiye has a very nice museum which is usually (and unfortunately) overlooked. It has lots of Lycian pieces from the Bronze, Archaic, Hellenistic and Roman ages and from Byzantine times which were collected from excavations of the many surrounding sites. The second half of the musuem is a separate ethnographic section with pieces from the Mentese and Ottoman times. Outside the museum is an open-air gallery with many interesting pieces including large tomb lids decorated with huge lions (my favorites). You can see my website page listed below for lots of information and photos. The museum is located in downtown Fethiye, just off the main road between the place where the Tuesday market is held and the harbour. There is a sign on the main road. You can ask anybody where it is or take a taxi. The Turkish word for museum is "müze" (pronounced moo-ze). I highly recommend a trip here, it is well worth it.

if your not into history,trekking....etc and all you want is to lay down on the beach a beer in the hand at least go and visit some ancient ruins.i say ruins but , infact many of them very well preserved : closest places you can go by local buses are : letoon, xanthos,patara
you can enjoy the fantastic ancient architect in patara and at the same time you can enjoy the sun in one of the longest beaches in turkey : about 12 km long !

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Butterfly Valley is about 10-15 km east of Oludeniz where highly dense touristic activities located. Only accessable from sea. A rough track (even climbing) connects the valley to the village Faralya 400 m over on the mountains surrounding. Perfect sea, and rock bar at night.

Fethiye reminds most of us of; OLUDENiZ. The world famous and one of the most beautiful wonders in the world Oludeniz , worths travelling miles and miles, for the turquoise blue waters wonderful lagoon. The crysyal pure water of Oludeniz is so clean that it is almost cleaner than the water you drink at home (if we omit the salt!)

There are two main paths you can walk through in Butterfly Valley. One leads to the waterfalls - whre the valley comes to a dead-end with high sheer cliffs where the two waterfalls cascade. Thee other leads to the village of Faralya but be warned its a steep path - not to be undertaken in the midday heat! Due to the humid microclimate here many species of butterfly can be seen - hence its name of course!. It is home to the unique Jersey Tiger butterfly amongst others the best time to see the butterflies is between June and September.

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There are churches, chapels and civil building ruins of Bizantium period, constructed between 5 - 11th centuries AD on Gemiler Island. Important for Christian history too as this is one of the centres from where Christianity initially spread - St Paul had visited nearby Patara on his missionary journeys.

Its a bit of a climb up the island to the ruins - especially in the heat of the day - but worthwhile for the views across to Gemiler Bay. A small charge is payable to go on the island too.

St. Nicolas island, named after St. Nicolas (Father Christmas yes he actually came from Turkey!!) ) is also know as Gemiler Island. Boats will call in here on the tours so people can swim in the cove or explore the ruins on the island.

A unique experience on the 12 island tour is a swim amongst the ruins of "Cleopatra's Baths in Hamam Bay. According to legend friends of Cleopatra built these baths for her where they found a hot water spring in this part of the bay. So come and see if the water here is good for your skin!